'It wouldn't go down well' Tyrone closing in on Kerry's unique 50-year GAA record
Next Thursday evening, Mickey Ned O’Sullivan will share a platform with two men with whom he shares a unique link going back 50 years. In 1975, Kerry completed the treble of All-Ireland senior, under-21 and minor football titles, the first, and only, time that it has been done. It is worth noting that the under-21 grade was only introduced in 1964, so it’s not a feat that counties had been striving for since the formative years of the GAA, but the fact that it hasn’t been done in the intervening five decades affords Kerry’s achievement increasing prestige. O’Sullivan captained the senior team, albeit he didn’t get to lift the cup in the Hogan Stand (more on that later), Kevin O’Donoghue skippered the under-21s, while Robert Bunyan lifted the Tom Markham Cup for the minors, who beat Tyrone just before O’Sullivan and Co led the seniors out on the same afternoon in Croke Park. O’Donoghue’s club, Glenflesk, are getting the three of them together in Barraduff to mark the achievement 50 years on. “They obviously decided to bring the three captains together with Radio Kerry just to have an interview and to reflect on the year and that's on next Thursday. Robert Bunyan will be there, Kevin O'Donoghue and myself. We wouldn't have met in the intervening years, you know. Everybody goes their own way.” The treble was completed a fortnight after the senior and minor finals, as the under-21s beat Dublin in the All-Ireland final in Tipperary town, with Mick O’Dwyer managing both sides, who trained together given the considerable overlap of players. Páidí Ó Sé, Tim Kennelly, Denis ‘Ogie’ Moran, Mikey Sheehy and Pat Spillane were starters for the seniors and under-21s. Another under-21, Ger O’Driscoll, scored a goal in the senior final after replacing O’Sullivan. Others would graduate to the senior team in time. From the minor team, Jack O’Shea, Sean Walsh, Mick Spillane, Charlie Nelligan would each win seven All-Ireland senior medals. Essentially, what unfolded over that period set Kerry football in good stead for more than a decade afterwards. “It was a reflection, I suppose, of the work that was being done at underage level, probably in the previous maybe five or six years, and it just all came together and as it turned out, that the minors won, the under-21s and the seniors,” says O’Sullivan. “It's a significant thing if it can be done because I was just looking, in the under-21 team, 10 of those went on to play with Kerry, and five of the minors did. “There was a big celebration at Christmas for the three teams and it was a reflection of what had been done for Kerry football during the course of the year.” There is, however, a possibility that O’Sullivan, O’Donoghue and Bunyan could be emulated by Mattie Donnelly, Joey Clarke and Pádraig Donaghy this year.
Mickey Ned O'Sullivan when managing Kerry minors back in 2012.
(Image: ©INPHO/James Crombie)
Under-21 became under-20 and the minor grade shifted from under-18 to under-17 in 2018, and Clarke and Donaghy have already captained Tyrone to those respective titles, beating Kerry en route in both. If they were to beat them in the senior semi-final today, they would become just the second county, after Cork, to lower the Kingdom’s colours in the three grades in the one year, while leaving Donnelly on track to lift the Sam Maguire Cup and emulate Kerry’s feat of 50 years ago. “It wouldn't go down well,” O’Sullivan acknowledges. “Because the track record in the past 25 years against Tyrone isn't great. So I think that's the incentive for Saturday.” With ‘75 in mind, it’s been a poignant week with the passing of Seán Doherty, the former Dublin captain with whom O’Sullivan shared a close friendship. Famously, Doherty poleaxed O’Sullivan in the 1975 final while he was on a weaving run towards goal, leaving the Kerry captain concussed and in hospital for the evening. But there was never any lasting rancour between the pair, who were in contact only last week. “We had a great friendship and we would meet a number of times every year, and we'd either go for lunch or a drink, so we kind of kept up the friendship and, as a result, the teams kind of kept up the friendship as well. “And it was all about friendship and respect rather than what they'd achieved or didn't achieve. We had similar journeys and we enjoyed each other's company and only two months ago we had a reunion to celebrate the 50th here in Kenmare for two days. “We all stayed in Sheen Falls and played golf, went on boat trips and everyone had their partners. So it was exceptional. It was great to have done it and Seán and Alan Larkin organised the Dublin side of it, I organised the Kerry side. “I was speaking to him last week. So we had a chat and we had arranged to probably meet next week and, obviously, things didn't work out and it was very sudden and everyone was shocked, really, because he was in great form.”
Dublin captain Sean Doherty lifts the Sam Maguire cup after Dublin defeated Galway in the 1974 All-Ireland Football final
(Image: Independent News And Media/Getty Images)
In 2005, Doherty came to Kenmare to present O’Sullivan with the Sam Maguire Cup, an acknowledgement of how his intervention had robbed him of the opportunity to accept it from Donal Keenan, the then GAA president, 30 years earlier. “We had a fundraiser in the club in Kenmare and the fundraiser was titled ‘Play It Again, Sam’. We had 1,300 people sitting down. We made 80 grand for the club on the night. “It was developing a whole new sports hall and everything at the time. And it was a continuation of the friendship and the bond that existed between the two groups.” Get the latest sports headlines straight to your inbox by signing up for free email alerts.
